NCRC Island Activators to be on Hen Island 5/12 @ noon

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The Island Activators of NCRC will be qualifying our first new island of this year, Hen Island, under the US Islands Awards Program tomorrow, Saturday May 12th.  We expect to be on the air around 12:00 PM through 4:00 PM local time.

The Island Activator team is well experienced, this being our 18th island activation.  Hen Island is an island within an island and lies in a cove inside the north end of Aquidneck Island.  In keeping with the NCRC emphasis on providing members with new experiences, first timers are welcome to come along.  There will be control operators/coaches to help you get your feet wet in a low stress operating environment.  Unfortunately the current wx forecast is terrible, but may improve.  Never the less, be prepared for rain with appropriate rain gear and warm layers.  The station will be under festival tents, so it won’t be that bad in a worst case scenario.   Bring your lunch and anything else that you might need on Hen.  The run from your pickup point is short and in protected waters, so there will not be rough water for the 15-minute voyage.  Contact john Mills (401-258-8604) to arrange a pickup around noon.  We expect to be returning between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM.

Operators enjoying the easy life at home are encouraged to work the Activator station on 40, then 20, meters.  You’ll find us near 7.265 MHz and 14.265 MHz.

For more information about the US Islands program see http://usislands.org/  If you go to the Island Directory/Island Directory by State tab and click on Rhode Island in the US map, you’ll see that W1SYE (Our club call) is the major player in Rhode Island.  If you’re listening, you may hear club member Jim KA3UNQ, who now lives in Maryland.  He put many of the first Rhode Island Activations on the State page.

The Consortium – May 7th – Amateur Satellites for Beginners

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Jim K1GND and Bob W1YRC host a monthly ham radio tutorial event that they call
“The Consortium“. They meet at the Asia Grille at Lincoln Mall on Rte. 116 in
Lincoln, usually on the first Monday of the month.  Meetings start at 6:30 PM, however, people start arriving after 5:00 PM for dinner before the meeting.

The May 7th Consortium presentation will cover using our repeaters in the sky — Amateur Radio Satellites.  The FM satellites, so called “easy-sats”, are especially simple to use.  All that is required is a dual band HT and simple antennas to have successful contacts.  Online tools or phone applications are then used to track the satellites, letting us know when the satellite will be overhead and where to point the antennas.  The talk will be given by Bob Beatty, WB4SON, who has been using satellites for more than four decades, and who is currently an ARISS Technical Mentor (Amateur Radio aboard the International Space Station).

NCRC Members Support Portsmouth MEDS-POD Exercise

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Several members of NCRC supported a Medical Emergency Distribution System – Points of Dispensing (MEDS-POD) exercise for the town of Portsmouth on April 19th.  Members involved were Chuck N1CKT, Brian N1TBT, Paul N1PSX, and John WA1ABI.

The purpose of the exercise is to train volunteers that would be utilized if there were a medical emergency requiring the rapid distribution of medications like vaccinations quickly to a large population (10,000 residents in the Portsmouth case).  The NCRC members were there to cover the communications required to coordinate such a large event.

Copies of the Newport Daily News covering the exercise are included below

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